Battle for Naulila
Location of the Portuguese forts Cuangar and Naulila on the border with German Southwest Africa
| date | December 18, 1914 |
|---|---|
| place | Naulila , Cunene Province , Angola |
| output | Victory of the German protection force |
| consequences | Destruction of Fort Naulila |
| Parties to the conflict | |
|---|---|
| Commander | |
| Troop strength | |
| about 450 Portuguese
approx. 300 Africans |
about 500 |
| losses | |
|
approx. 160 dead |
31 dead |
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The battle for Naulila took place during the First World War and was the climax and the end of a punitive expedition by the protection force of German Southwest Africa on the territory of the Portuguese colony Província de Angola (also Portuguese West Africa ). This was preceded by the murder of a German district captain and four officers of the Schutztruppe by the Portuguese .
It is noteworthy that the two mother countries , Germany and Portugal, were not yet at war with one another at that time.
Background and course
When the First World War broke out in August 1914, the protection force in German South West Africa was soon confronted with the superior military strength of the Union Defense Force from the South African Union . In view of this, in order to prevent at least one war on another, northern front with the Portuguese ruling in Angola, the German Reich sought negotiations with Portugal.
In October 1914, the district administrator of Outjo , Hans Schultze-Jena (a son of Bernhard Sigmund Schultze ), went to the Portuguese fort in Naulila together with four officers of the protection force in order to negotiate a non-aggression pact there. In addition, the whereabouts of food deliveries that had apparently disappeared in Angola should be clarified.
According to some sources, the delegation crossed the Angolan border illegally , while other sources said the Portuguese had invited them.
Arrived in Angola, Schultze-Jena and his companions met a Portuguese unit led by officer Alferes Sereno . Sereno asked the Germans to accompany him to Fort Naulila, and a brief firefight broke out in the course of which Schultze-Jena and two officers were killed. The two surviving officers were taken from Sereno to Fort Naulila, where they were murdered by garrison soldiers on October 19, 1914.
In response to these incidents, the commander-in-chief of the protection force of German South West Africa , Lieutenant Colonel Joachim von Heydebreck , put together a punitive expedition under Oswald Ostermann , the police chief of Nkurenkuru , which attacked the Portuguese fort in Cuangar on October 31, 1914 and during the so-called Cuangar massacre killed most of the fort's Portuguese and Angolan residents using machine guns . After the destruction of Cuangar, Ostermann moved on and in the course of further battles destroyed the Portuguese forts in Bunya , Shambyu , Dirico and Mucusso .
When Lieutenant Colonel von Heydebreck died in November 1914, Major Victor Franke took over the command of the Schutztruppe. Shortly afterwards Franke assembled a battalion of 500 men for a further expansion of the punitive expedition against Angola and attacked Fort Naulila on December 18, 1914. To get to the scene of the event, the newly formed battalion was previously transported by rail from Karasburg to Otjiwarongo , from where it then marched on foot to Naulila.
In the course of the battle Franke was injured, so that Captain Georg Trainer took over command.
Although the protection force was outnumbered and exhausted due to the long journey, it quickly gained the upper hand in the course of the battle. The Portuguese occupation of the fort subsequently suffered a devastating defeat. An estimated 150 Portuguese were killed in the course of the battle. The surviving Portuguese fled early into the bush , where most of them were subsequently killed by the Owambo, who had been suppressed by the Portuguese colonial rule in Angola . Fort Naulila was completely destroyed in the course of the battle.
In contrast to the Portuguese, the protection force only had 31 casualties to complain about.
Legal history
The German attack on Cuangar was, from a legal point of view, reprisal . In 1928, an international arbitration tribunal negotiating this attack laid down legal requirements for such retaliation (previous violation by the punished state; after negotiations, the compensation claims remain unfulfilled; the retaliation must not be disproportionate to the previous violation of the law).
Others
The Naulila memorial in Outjo, Namibia , still commemorates the German victims of the punitive expedition. All German soldiers who fell during the punitive expedition were buried in Outjo.
The German Reich said Portugal only on March 9, 1916 officially the war was lost as German South West Africa long to the South Africans.
A Himba leader , Vita Tom , took part in the battle for Naulila on the Portuguese side and was able to flee.
See also
literature
- Historicus Afrikanus: The 1st World War in German South West Africa 1914/15. Volume 2: Naulila. Glanz & Gloria Verlag Windhoek 2012, ISBN 978-99916-872-3-0 ( excerpt online ).
Web links
- First World War in German South West Africa , from: Chronicle of German South West Africa by HE Lenssen
Notes and individual references
- ↑ Decreto n.º 12499 de 15 de outubro de 1926. Carta Orgânica da Colónia de Angola. Retrieved May 17, 2017.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j The battle for Naulila archive link ( memento from August 6, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) on: Afrikareisen.info , February 17, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i The fight for Naulila [1] on: Zum.de , February 17, 2012.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k l m The battle for Naulila archive link ( Memento from November 1, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on: Ozebook.com , February 17, 2012. (English)
- ↑ According to the memorial book of the Bremen Colonial Memorial (part of German South West Africa) ( Memento from December 20, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), 12 men died or died and one was missing as a result of the battle in Naulila.
- ^ Boleslaw Adam Boczek: International Law: A Dictionary , Scarecrow Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8108-5078-8 , p. 112
- ↑ The Naulila Memorial [2] on: Namibiana.de , February 17, 2012.